Hollow Words
by Imagen99
Summary: After Ron left, Hermione is angry. But why did Ron leave?
1. He Left

_I Own Nothing! This is a short explanation of why Ron took so long to come back. _

"I get it. You choose him." His voice cut her.

'_No! No I don't! I needed to Ron, we promised him-'_ but even her thoughts were fake and hollow. She had chosen Harry over Ron, but she found herself confused. She knew why she'd told him she'd stay, but she couldn't understand it. Ron was irreplaceable, and she'd lost him. She may never see him again if he left.

She darted forward to follow him, but smacked straight into her shield charm. Struggling uselessly to get past, it finally dawned on her to pull out her wand. As soon as the barrier came down Hermione streamed out after Ron, reaching blindly for him.

"Ron! Ron come back! Please!" The rain pounded against the ground viciously, and Hermione stumbled and fell into the mud. Ron didn't turn back, just kept storming forward. And then he was gone. Laying in the mud pathetically, Hermione's pride deserted her leaving her crawling to where he'd apparated.

"Ron…" Tears were now pouring down her face with the same intensity of the rain, she wiped away at them furiously. He left her.

She lay there until the rain had soaked her through, leaving her feeling as hollow and numb physically as she was emotionally. The mud ran in thick clumps along her hair, leaving it dull and dirty. Finally when she remembered Harry she got up solemnly and went back to the tent.

Sobbing what had happened to Harry, she saw his shocked expression and felt a surge of anger. _'You. You asked him to leave.'_ With that in mind she left him standing there and wandered to last place Ron had been. Curling up in an armchair she cried herself to sleep, wondering how on earth he could ever leave her.

~~~/~~~

The next morning she'd moved past the hurt by burying it deeply and instead relied on the feeling of numbness to function properly. _'I don't care if he left. I don't. It's only Ron…I don't need him.'_ But ever present was the confusion, she had stayed with Harry. She had done the right thing, but why did her heart feel so shattered? Why did she yearn for him to return, to even send them a message saying he was fine? It didn't make sense to the cool headed, logical Hermione. _'Then again Ron has never made sense to me.'_ However despite what he'd done he was still a part of her, just as Harry was…but differently. Harry needed them, and they needed him. Ron was hers, her selfish need. And without him she was nothing.

Looking around she discovered that she had wandered into the forest. Seeing the silence, the serenity Hermione's anger bubbled up again. _'It shouldn't be like this! It shouldn't be normal! It-It…' _ Her hands flew to her face, with her lips twitch madly and for a bizarre moment she thought she was going to laugh. Instead a soft keening sound was emitted from her throat.

She opened her mouth, mouthing his name and fat tears started pouring out. Hermione furiously rubbed at her eyes, trying to stop the flow. Soon she was bawling and shrieking, only getting louder. It increased until she was on her knees howling. _'I DON'T CARE! I DON'T C-'_ Her thoughts were a mess, her mind scattered. She couldn't think straight at all.

Memories swelled up in her mind and crashed down in haunting waves. The pain increased as she remembered all that time he'd spent with them. All of their adventures. All of his words of comfort, promises and reassurances. Wasted. They were all wasted. He had left her, and now they were wasted. She stumbled to her feet, and tripped again. Little more than a sobbing mass on the floor, she didn't see the person approach until their arms had encircled her.

"HE LEFT! HE LEFT US, ME!" Her voice sounded scratchy, and she momentarily felt the arms loosen. They tightened when she tried to wriggle out, holding her in place. "HARRY LET GO!" He coughed, and muttered in a throaty voice.

"Hermione, shhh. It's okay…" She barely heard him, too busy shaking her head and clutching his shirt trying to control herself.

As Hermione calmed down she still distanced herself from him. Walking away, she scowled. Hearing footsteps in the snow beside her, her face screwed up in pain. She wanted him to know how she felt, how she hurt because of Ron. She wanted him to lie to her and say that they didn't need him. She wanted to hear how much of a selfish, insufferable arrogant jerk he was.

"I hate him." The words were simple and easy to say. Yet completely false, no matter how many times she repeated them. The sincerity behind her words was hollow because she could never mean them. As much as it hurt her to say she could never hurt him. But he had left her. She repeated it again, trying to convince herself. The footsteps stopped suddenly.

"What did you say?" He sounded shocked and a little hurt. Hermione thought about what she'd said, and tried to make it true.

"I hate him. I hate him for leaving us, I hate him for abandoning everything we've worked for and I hate his stupid face for being such an arse! He left! He left us, knowing what could happen and **he didn't come back**_._" As Hermione finished her rant she turned around to face Harry, but he was gone. The footsteps in the snow had disappeared, he had obviously apparated.

Sighing to herself, Hermione walked back up to the tent and sat down cradling her head in her hands. She sniffed for a while and curled up in his armchair. She didn't talk about her breakdown or her false words.

The only time she got up was to make herself a cup of watery tea. She went to offer Harry some, but saw him laying asleep in his hammock, snoozing gently.

Alone in the woods Ronald Weasley's heart broke slowly.


	2. Enough

_I Own Nothing! Alquimista helped me a lot with this chapter, arguing Ron's points and everything. So thanks Oh and my generous beta, Absidoodle -thank ye :)_

Ron was seething. He was absolutely furious, and as he watched Hermione and Harry argue with him, his frustration grew to impossible heights. Could they not see that this was all a waste of time? Dumbledore had left Harry nothing, an impossible task, and even after weeks Hermione and Harry still expected him to be fine with that. As if it was okay.

They had no leads, they had got nowhere so far, and they probably weren't ever going to find anything anyway. How the hell were they expected to defeat the worst dark wizard in history with **nothing **to go on? Ron felt increasingly bitter towards Dumbledore. How could he allow three seventeen year olds to go through this alone? How could he expect them to just trust him blindly? It was stupid. Dumbledore was stupid, and so was Harry for believing him.

Ron's stomach grumbled, and he was yet again reminded of how uncomfortably hungry he was. Never before had he gone hungry, his mother had always had something ready for him before he even asked. It was so tempting for him to know that at home, a good meal was a given and he could have one – now, if he apparated there…it was so close. He knew he couldn't go home though, that was impossible. He didn't want to endanger his family even more. Ron was a significant target himself, as Harry Potter's best friend. Seeing them now would be dangerous no matter what he did.

Hermione shifted into view, and she looked to be struggling to cook a limp fish. He watched her interact with Harry, laughing and joking with him as if all was fine in the world. As if she didn't tell him just a few days ago that she too was disappointed in Harry.

"_Hermione, I'm sick of this! We need to go right now, and talk to Harry about this bloody mess we're in. Maybe, if we play our cards right we could win this with the order's help."_

"_No Ron! Dumbledore told Harry to tell no one but us, and arguing with him isn't going to help. Please, just calm down a minute."_

"_Why Hermione? Why should I? He's led us into this mess, and he just expects us to be okay with risking our lives when we're accomplishing nothing! What have we achieved so far? What has Harry told us we should do? What ideas does he have?" He fumed for a few moments, breathing heavily. Hermione sagged visibly._

"_Well…I can't deny I thought he had a bit more to go on. Some sort of a plan…but Ron, we have to trust him!"_

"_Trust him? And get ourselves killed? There's a million things we could be doing that would be useful right now Hermione. We could be training, improving, learning to fight! And you just want to sit around? Why am I the only one with any sense?" Ron stormed off, pushing past a bemused Harry as he went._

Ron seethed. He truly didn't understand Hermione – she could see the sense in his argument and yet she was still on Harry's side! Glowering at the two, Ron's mood darkened until he felt an uncomfortable pain across his arm. The pain sliced him in two, and a white hot fire crawled menacingly up his arm.

**She doesn't care about you. **

The thought left Ron surprised.

**She only cares about Harry. Not Ron, only the boy-who-lived.**

Ron's face soured, and his stomach flipped uncomfortably.

**Who could blame her?**

Ron's anger grew.

**He's the famous one. She has the brains. What are you to them? They have each other they don't need you. There they are now, having another one of their chats, completely forgetting about you.**

He felt himself standing, his anger bubbling over.

**After all, they don't really care.**

**You're nothing to them.**

"Oh, remembered me have you?" He snarled.


End file.
